A Poem Harder than Stone? An Inscription from One or More Ciboria in Kotor

Abstract

The letters on the Kotor fragments are specific for the many punctures they contain, occasionally semicircles that break the hastas on some of them. This feature has hitherto served as evidence that the fragments belonged to the same ciborium. However, the edges of the slabs are not cut at the same angle nor are they all the same thickness, so it is hard to imagine them as parts of the same furnishing. A recently found transcript of an inscription speaks nevertheless in favour of the hypothesis that it was indeed a single monument. Its text expresses a coherent thought and the rhythm supports this view. It is a poem consisting of four octosyllabic and two heptasyllabic trochees, based on the medieval way of constructing rhythm by regularly alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. It therefore remains a puzzle how the verses found themselves on incompatible stone slabs. A newly found transcript of the inscription has indicated that the man named Nicephorus was a bishop from the second half of the 12th century. Andrew and his companions were most likely local saints, but it does not seem likely that they perished in the conflict between the people of Kotor and the Serbian ruler Nemanja, because he was the political protector of Bishop Nicephorus in the dispute with the Dubrovnik metropolitan. As the cult of Andrew and his brethren was introduced to Dubrovnik approximately at that time along with the story that the people of Kotor did not deserve them, their choice on the Kotor monument could be seen as a strike back in the rejection of the unwanted church leadership from Dubrovnik.